Over the past couple years, while my young son has been the Thomas nut, it's been my older daughter (now 9) that's actually gotten involved with the actual building and running of Dad's model trains. So we looked at a 2'x6' space between her bed and closet, and came up with this: The corner is lopped off to not block part of the closet door (sliding). There's open access on the left, front and part of the right. She likes building scenery, painting rocks, laying ground foam, making trees, etc., as well as driving trains. Not just roundy round but more realistic switching ops. So I was thinking we'll build the benchwork, lay the track and do the wiring together (is it ever too early for kids to play with soldering irons and table saws?), and then she can scenic as she wants, along with learning how to build buildings and details. (She's already leaning towards the cannery becoming "Snappy's Squid Snacks") Central California (around Monterey and Salinas) has rolling golden hills, sandy soil, oaks (think East of Eden and Cannery Row). I know it's tight curves, but I was thinking 44T, 70T or NW2 for most the ops, with maybe a RS-1 or -3 (or old 2-8-0) for bringing in the trains of 6-7 40' cars from "off" layout (the visible staging behind the hill. Layout height is 30"-32", which is good for her standing (can reach the back), and good for Dad-sitting-down ops. The design should allow for having the RS-1 run roundy round while one switches the waterfront or the interior. We've been imagineering moves and spotting, but perhaps you guys can see something we're overlooking in our excitement. Thanks for all your thoughts! (I was joking about the circular saw, btw. Soldering, she's already started to learn )
Here's the layout with numbered labels for carspots and track capacity numbers. I'm using 40' cars as the average. Any potential problems for ops? Thanks again!
A slight modification, replacing the #6 3-way with two #4.5 straight turnouts, and adding a yardgoat stub at the wharf: The 3-way on my current layout is experiencing point rails popping off the throwbar due to higher stress because of the shorter length the electrical isolation cuts necessitate. I'm sure if I built a couple more I could iron out the kinks, but not sure this layout needs a 3-way: operationally two regular turnouts seem to work fine, and would be much more "bulletproof" for us to operate. The yardgoat stub would help create a more self-sufficient operations area at the wharf, so a through / inbound train (The "staging" in the back would hold one northbound and one southbound train) could go roundy round crossing over from outer to inner in the middle while one person could switch the wharf, another the oil / engine, or the lumber between trains. But perhaps I'm trying to unnecessarily pack too much in.
Well, was thinking of having a switcher (44T, 70T or NW2) floating around each side of the main: one for the wharf and another for the oil / rip / lumber. That way each of the two operators could be working continuously, with the innergoat setting out and picking up the trains, and then working the oil & lumber, while the outergoat could deal with the frieght, dock and cannery work, using the middle 5-spot track as the "yard". The other two engines would be the RS-1,-2 or 2-8-0s (this is 1949/1950) pointed in opposite directions behind the hills at the "staging", and would represent the north- & south-bound freights. (There don't seem to be too many RS-1s or -2s in SP livery. Hmmm... maybe custom up a fictional branch) ["Atchi-Kotchi" just means "here & there & everywhere" in Japanese" and is the temp title] There could just be one switcher for all the industries: it just seems like it'd be pretty busy, worried about being on the wrong side of the main, and get the operator dizzy from zig-zagging through the center all the time. But open for suggestions!
